“Well, well, well, guess who came crawling back with an apology for calling me a fraud,” said a voice in the doorway, several hours later. All four of us were hunkered around Liam’s laptop, looking at footage from one of the still cameras in the prison. It was taken before the cops showed up (basically every bit of footage after they came was completely unusable), and Luke and Liam both claimed to see a shadow move in one of the doorways. Caitlin was having trouble seeing it, and I, of course, knew that there was nothing there because there was another spirit in the room, and they didn’t react at all to someone walking by. The spirit of the bald man in a gray jumpsuit just stared straight at the wall on the other side of the cell, as though he didn’t quite realize that he wasn’t trapped there anymore. I felt bad that we hadn’t gotten a chance to help him, but we were so busy with Squint and Baby Face that I hadn’t had much time to investigate the rest of the prison. Maybe we would the next time we went there.


    Of course, I told everyone about the spirit in the room, which just made them all the more sure that the shadow they saw was real. Whatever - all the ghost hunting videos I’d seen on YouTube were fake anyway, so they might as well freak out about a shadow. It was better than something that was obviously added in post.


    I turned and saw Circe walking through the door of Liam’s hotel room, trying to bully a suitcase that had to be half her body weight through the door. Since the last time we’d seen her, she’d dyed her hair bright green, and today, she had on a short black dress, combat boots, and space buns. I couldn’t help but think that her fashion choices were remarkably similar to my own outfit.


    I was about to correct her and say that no one had said she was a fraud - that all I’d said was that I didn’t see any spirits when she did her first exorcism, and that I was clearly right because Luke still was possessed, but Liam lightly touched my arm before I could say anything. It was a small enough gesture that Circe probably wouldn’t see it, but it was enough to know that he also remembered that that wasn’t what I had said.


    “Circe,” Luke said, standing up to give her a hug. “Thank you so much for coming, and being willing to try the exorcism again.”


    “I thought about saying no,” she said as she broke away and reached for Caitlin, who had now moved closer and was eagerly awaiting her turn for a hug, “but then Cait asked so nicely that I figured I couldn’t just leave you guys hanging. Besides, it’s been a while since I dealt with a demonic possession.” She caught Luke’s chin in her hand and moved his head back and forth, inspecting it closely. “So, any symptoms of demonic possession? Black eyes, speaking in tongues, violent thoughts, puking split pea soup like in the exorcist?”


    “You’re really just getting this from movies, huh?” Liam said, although his voice was joking.


    “And the movies have to get it from somewhere,” she said, dropping Luke’s chin and returning to her bag. “Well?”Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    “Nothing like that, but I did see the little girl for a second,” Luke said.


    She turned around, her eyebrows raised, to look at Luke. “So what, you’re seeing ghosts now, too? Don’t tell me that you see like 15 in this room that I’m missing or something. If you get too drastic with your made up abilities, people are going to start to doubt you,” she said, her eye flicking to me for a second.


    Liam rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, Circe, you know Andi didn’t mean it like that.”


    “You tell that to the next person whose craft she decides to insult,” she said, turning back to her back and digging around for a second, then pulled out a small bottle. She opened the top, and pulled out a dropper full of liquid. “Open your mouth,” she said, turning to Luke. He did as asked, and she squirted the liquid into his mouth. His eyes immediately bulged slightly and he started coughing. “Can someone get him a drink of water?” she asked, and Caitlin immediately grabbed one of the glasses from the sink and filled it with tap water. “It’s a homemade mixture of rosemary oil and oil of oregano. Both ward off bad spirits, plus they''re good for your health.”


    “Yeah, if I survive them,” Luke said between coughs.


    “No one has died yet from anything that I’ve given them, and I doubt you would be the first.” She looked at the glass of water he was holding, then opened up a side pocket of her bag and pulled out a little vial of water, which she poured into his cup. “The holy water will be diluted by the regular water, but it should still be strong enough to get rid of a demon.”


    “See, we told you that would work,” Liam said, subtly grabbing the camera off his desk to film what was going on. He’d missed the rosemary and oregano, but something told me that was a good thing.


    “We don’t know if it will,” Circe said, and I wasn’t sure if she was just protecting herself in case nothing changed, or if she was actually defending me. “But it’s been said that demons have a fear of holy water, so it’s best to flush your system with it. I should grab some more from wherever the closest church is, actually, so we can dilute some in water for you to drink for the next couple of days. Speaking of things that demons fear, though,” she said, rifling in her purse again before bringing out a long, beaded necklace. “Rosaries also help to get rid of demons, so you’ll need to wear this and pray as often as you can.” She reached up and hung the rosary around Luke’s neck, then finally noticed Liam with the camera. “You might as well turn that off - we’re not doing a full exorcism tonight.”


    “We’re not?” Luke asked, already reflexively rubbing the beads of the rosary with his hand.


    “We’re not,” Circe answered.


    “Shit,” Liam said, turning off the camera and setting it back down. “Okay, but I’m fully expecting to be able to get another video out of the exorcism.”


    “And I’ll make sure you get it,” Circe said, a devious smile appearing on her face. “But part of doing an exorcism is having the mental fortitude to force the spirit out. And after this long of driving in a car, I definitely don’t have that right now. Plus, if we get a little more holy water into his system and get him to wear a rosary overnight, it should start wearing the demon down. We’ll put on a whole show tomorrow, but I’m sure it won’t take more than lightly requesting it to leave. In the meantime, though, I’m going to go find enough holy water to last you through the night, and then I’m going to pass out because I’m fucking exhausted.”


    “I’ll come with you,” Caitlin said, immediately jumping up when Circe grabbed her bag. “I don’t want you driving around an unknown city while you’re exhausted, and these guys have got to work on the video, anyway.”


    “Work on the video for a while if you must, but make sure you sleep as well. We’ll need to be at full strength for tomorrow,” she warned, once again fighting to get her bag through the door. “If you don’t, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”